Pluto/Charon

The binary planet system has changed drastically since its discovery back in 1930. In the next fifty years or so, the minor planet was visited infrequently by other probes, surveying the system and learning more about it. In 2089, the planet was chosen as an ideal place to build the first Superluminal Engine, SLE. In the modern day, the binary pair of dwarf planets serve as the main entry and exit point for the Sol system.

Pluto/Charon

Planet Data

Stellar Radius 29.7-49.3 AUs Surface Gravity 0.063/.030 g Length of Day 153.29 hours Length of Year 247.94 Earth Years Population Satellites Charon Orbital Stations River Styx, Port Elysium Political Affiliation American Union/GDW

1930 - Discovery of Pluto

1978 - Discovery of Charon

2006 - IAU classifies Pluto as a minor planet

2015 - Flyby by New Horizons probe

2051 - First probe to orbit Pluto/Charon

2089 - Pluto is chosen as the site for the first Superluminal Engine

2096 - Construction of Port Elysium

2102 - Superluminal Engine Construction begins

2115 - First Large Scale Superluminal Engine completed on Pluto

2116-21 - Accidents with the SLE Happen

2136 - Asphodel is founded

2150 - Construction of the River Styx begins

2285 - Completion of the River Styx, with the final connection hooking up the two halves to Nix and Port Elysium

2300 - Census finds that the system is filled with 320,000 residents

The pair of binary planets have come a long way since they were downgraded from the ‘planet’ classification in 2006. After FTL was first discovered in 2070, the search was on for an ideal place to build the first Superluminal Engine. In 2089, the planet was chosen by the AU and GDW as an ideal place to build the SLE due to the easy access of resources on and near the planet, as well as it’s isolated nature lending a large safety margin in case of failure.

As completion of the SLE neared, the AU realized that if the construction was sped up, they’d make the hundred year anniversary of the New Horizons flyby. Not letting a good marketing opportunity go to waste, like all good Americans, the construction was rushed to hit the July 2115 deadline, it was a near miracle that the demonstration flight on the Fourteenth wasn’t a disaster, being loaded to bear with dignitaries and other VIPs. Unfortunately, there were some teething issues afterwards, a few flights failed to be sent out at all and one was even destroyed when the SLE’s array malfunctioned. These were sorted out in the next few years, with the last accident taking place in 2121.

After a few decades of operation and the founding of the next major city, Asphodel, the system was getting more developed and the idea of tying Pluto and Charon together with a space elevator was proposed. After the idea was fully explored and feasibility studies were conducted, they decided to go for it and start the construction of the ‘River’ Styx. The first section started on Pluto at Asphodel, in the Tombaugh Regio, while Charon’s was anchored to the Clarke Montes. At the same time, Charon and Nix had their orbits ‘nudged’, with the liberal application of fusion rockets and mass drivers. While the construction missed the original hundred year timeline, the space elevator was completed in the late 23rd century, easing the traffic from Asphodel and the Port.

As the 24th century came, a census was conducted and found that the system had 320,000 residents, between Port Elysium, Asphodel, and other minor settlements, though hundreds of thousands of transients go through the system every year.

The main space station of the binary system, the Port started out as an operating base on the former moon Nix, for the system’s development and construction of the SLE, due to metal deposits found in the 2080s and its low gravity. As the system was further developed and Asphodel became the hub of the SLE, the Port changed roles and became the last stop for ships that needed to stock up on supplies before traveling out of the Sol system, digging a pair of cylinder habitats into the moon and adding starship docks to further provide services to passing ships. Once the River Styx was nearing completion, the Port, and the moon it was built into, was moved between Pluto and Charon, connecting the two halves of the space elevator.

The industrial powerhouse of the Kuiper belt, the cone-shaped city is built into the surface of Pluto itself, spinning around the River Styx to increase the apparent gravity along the city’s edge to .4g, when combined with the dwarf planet’s gravity. The city is constantly digging deeper into the planet’s icy crust as it gains residents, adding factories, generators, farms, and computer banks as it goes. Asphodel is where the control center and AI, Hades, for the SLE is based, connected to the arrays of emitters that fold space and make FTL-travel possible.

Large sections of Pluto are covered by fields of emitter arrays, stretching across the dwarf planet’s surface to be able to service the many ships that come to the binary system to be sent out of the solar system.

The space elevator was built to connect Pluto and Charon, bringing the pair of dwarf planets together and allowing their resources to be exploited easier. The River was constructed out of steel, carbon nanotubes, and composite materials extracted from the Pluto/Charon system as well as other other Kuiper and Trojan bodies.

Built to ‘nudge’ Charon’s orbit, the batteries of fusion rockets and mass drivers built into the surface of the dwarf planet still fire on occasion, mainly feeding the different types of ice on the moon to either burn in the rocket engines for station keeping or to, less wastefully, sling off the planetary body to be used elsewhere.